| Subject: Simply resolved |
Author:
Ben
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Date Posted: 01/ 9/04 9:15pm
In reply to:
Wade A. Tisthammer
's message, "Proof against an infinite past?" on 01/ 9/04 5:47pm
The problem is very simple. You're treating infinity like a finite concept. In other words, you're saying the word "infinity," but then you're saying x and y are equal because they're both infinite. X and y (I'm using these instead of your years and days) cannot, of course, be equal, since the very idea of years and days involves their being very different amounts of time. Infinity cannot be defined as a particular number, which is what you're trying to do with it.
You've created your own paradox with clever words, but there is no real paradox. Our minds have trouble with the idea of infinity, but we can either say the universe doesn't have a first cause, or God doesn't have a first cause. Either way, there's something in there without a first cause. It just depends on whether you want to accept a more natural explanation or make up some invisible being to explain it, which is quite a jump, and a jump I see no reason to make.
Another problem is this idea of "existing outside time," which makes no sense at all. Time isn't some location that you can either be in or out of. Time is relative to the observer unless you discount Einstein, and quantum theory adds even more uncertainty to the whole deal. Contemporary quantum theory says it's not unlikely that there are several universes or one universe that perpetually cycles back through itself in some sort of loop. To me, the idea that some invisible guy created everything (a guy who also needs a cause) is much less likely than scientific theories on the matter.
So your basic problems are that
(a) you're creating a paradox that isn't there, and
(b) you're misunderstanding the nature of time.
Ben
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